Archived stories from Monday,
December 7, 2009 through Saturday, February 6, 2010
TIDBITS
Candy Jimerson, 47, of Little
Valley, arrested on charges of peddling illegal prescription drugs
(e.g. Oxycontin) (WESB)...
2/5
You
are witnessing history: The slow erasure of Limestone off the
map continues (Olean
Times
Herald)... 2/4
219 news: Federal government will refuse to allow the construction of
any new highway south of Snake Run in Ashford unless the Senecas will
allow a highway onto their territory... good luck with that... in other
words, we will effectively have a highway that originally stopped in a
village (Springville) now dumping out in Ashford, in the middle of
nowhere, not significantly closer to anything (Olean
Times
Herald)... 2/4
I'm not much of a poll guy, but
when a Quinnipiac poll comes out showing 3-to-1 support for a state
employee wage freeze, I stand up and take notice (Quinnipiac)...
the
other
part,
I
assume,
is the state workers and teachers... 2/4
Buffalo
developer and political activist Carl Paladino mulls a run for governor
(Buffalo
News)... Albany press doesn't even mention it on their blogs... 2/3
He could very well have my vote.
Your local state legislature election fundraising numbers...
Giglio raises a mere $100... Young "sitting pretty" and continues to
raise tens of thousands in cash... for what??? She hasn't had a serious
challenger--well, ever (Buffalo
News)... 2/3
Things
that remind you of Obama: Remember Rose Sconiers, the judge who
singlehandedly blocked the state's previous effort to collect taxes on
Indian cigarette sales? Well, Paterson got her out of the way-- she's
getting a promotion (Buffalo News)...
2/2
(Funny how Paterson, like Obama, likes to promote his
political opponents, while Pataki used to promote his political
cronies. Not sure which is worse. It'd be nice if someone actually made
qualified appointments without regard to politics... but these are
politicians we're talking about.)
The
election
is
on:
* Rick Lazio comes out swinging...
looks like Andrew Cuomo's not going to be able to hide as a
"non-candidate" for much longer (New
York
Post)...
* ...but hold on: a guy who
probably has little or no chance of winning, Libertarian Warren
Redlich, announces he will also seek the Republican line, and not only
that, proposes a $100,000 a year salary cap for public employees (Albany
Times-Union)... 2/1
New York City politicians want to
claim their prisoners, which they send upstate to keep them away from
the city, as New York City residents so that they can get yet more
power in the legislature... gee... because that NYC-led one-party
government is doing SO well right now (end sarcasm) (Albany
Times-Union)... 1/29
Potential gubernatorial candidate
Steve Levy's proposal for fixing the budget crisis: declare a fiscal
emergency and call in the control board (New
York
Post)... 1/27
Chris
Collins drops out of governor's race, will not back would've-been
primary opponent Rick Lazio, encourages state GOP to look for someone
else (Buffalo
News)... 1/26
They don't care about you, part... I
lost count: State unions are upset that the governor is
using temporary workers, who will work for less, during a financial
crisis... naturally (Albany
Times-Union)... 1/26
Appointed Senator Gillibrand refuses to meet with Senecas... Senecas
threaten to run ads against her (Buffalo
News)... 1/26
Flood
heads-up:
Allegheny
River
cresting above flood stage in both Olean and
Salamanca... 1/26
Quality Markets widely expected to stay open-- under the Tops name-- as
Tops buys the grocery chain, which has stores in Frewsburg,
Ellicottville and Randolph (Jamestown
Post-Journal)... 1/26
The
governor's
budget
proposal: Still growing!!! Claims he can't cut
benefits, won't stand up against the unions, so he'll pass the buck to
municipalities and bring back the soda tax (official
release)... 1/19
COMMENT: So Paterson claims that they can't cut benefits or salaries,
but he proposes massive cuts to the lower levels of government who are
subject to those same benefits and salaries! Get some courage [edited
to
be
less
graphic], governor.
Something needs to be done.
UPDATE: Paterson does a not-quite-180, more of a 135: will consider
taxing the Indians... but only after 6 months of public comment (NY
Observer)... 1/19
Explosives: not something you
should play with yourself (Dunkirk
Observer)... 1/18
God
help us... the lone announced Republican candidate against
Gillibrand calls Olean "Oleana" (Liz
Benjamin)... 1/17 (Update: Liz is taking the blame for
mistranscribing the name...)
Republicans getting ready to stand
up against influence from NYC Democrats using their summer homes to
vote (AP)...
1/17
Take this for what it's worth, it's
the New York Post, who's in the tank for Andrew Cuomo, but...
Paterson allegedly caught ogling a young Latina (New
York
Post)... 1/17
It's good to be a teacher... taxpayer?
Not so much: Chautauqua Lake teachers, in the middle of a
recession, get a 15% raise now, and 5% raises for each of the next two
years, plus back pay (Jamestown
Post-Journal)... 1/17
Paterson mulling yet another
cigarette tax increase,
but still won't touch the Indians (Buffalo
News)... 1/11
Paterson's State of the State: HE
WILL NOT MAKE TRANSCRIPT AVAILABLE! (Times
Union
has
it
though)... Press release
summary... video...
legislators
simply
ignore
them
and
fiddle
with
their
Blackberries?
(New
York
Times)... Gary Nease says that Young and Giglio were mostly
positive about it, but I don't even know if they were even there,
because I know they both knew Francis Andera and I spotted both
stopping at calling hours on Tuesday... (Francis Andrea is my father's
sister's husband-- i.e. uncle by marriage-- and was well-connected in
local Republican circles. He died last Wednesday night.)
The
Seneca Nation comes out in favor of cigarette smuggling??? Seriously? I
know I've called the Seneca leadership corrupt criminals before, but
this proves my point exactly (Olean
Times
Herald)... 1/6
The mysterious case of the
disappering state pension checks--60,000, mostly from this area of the
state (Plattsburgh
Press-Republican)... 1/6
So, um... Eric Massa claims that
the attempted terrorist attack that occurred on Christmas was the
Republicans' fault??? (Olean
Times
Herald)... 1/1
Seneca Nation losing money on the
casinos, $19M loss on $700M revenue, compared to a $102M profit in 2008
(Sharon
Turano)... 12/31
They don't care about you:
Teachers' unions making a run on the state pension system before
cost-savings measures kick in (Gannett)...
12/31
Cattaraugus
County Judge Larry Himelein censured for attempting to collude with
other judges to extort pay raises from the legislature(Albany
Times-Union)... 12/28 UPDATE 1/1: Himelein slightly indignant,
accepts censure but accuses people of "snooping" (Olean
Times
Herald)...
Merry
Christmas: Powerball coming to New York (Gannett)...
12/25
Oh,
the joys of working the night shift: Buffalo meteorologist Mike
Cejka involved in police chase, becomes butt of jokes on Buffalo News
Web site (Buffalo
News)... 12/23
Farmers... do you like pork? Then
this federal bill is for you (WESB)...
12/20
Pardon me for being a cynic, but
when you're about to get embroiled in a very difficult election, one
that you have a strong chance of losing, and out comes a puff piece
about how you saved a man's life... I get a little suspicious... ahem,
Eric Massa (Olean
Times
Herald)... 12/17
When is a tax not a tax? When it's
a tribute... not sure if I'd be honored or insulted if a tax was named
after me (Dunkirk
Observer)... 12/14
Paterson does what he should have done long ago: cut off state funding (AP)...
12/14
Our illegally installed lieutenant
governor says we should pay no attention to the ethical problems in
Albany (Elizabeth
Benjamin)... 12/9
Bruno
busted: Former Senate Republican Leader Joseph Bruno convicted
on two counts of "theft of honest services," faces up to 40 years in
prison (Jimmy
Vielkind) (more
from
the
Times
Union) (and
the
NY
Daily
News)... Young,
virtually all other Republicans silent... 12/8
So,
I guess the question is... why??? WESB reports that county
legislature chairperson Crystal Abers has resigned, two years before
her term was up... she will have a parachute, though: she lands in the
county's office of Economic Development, Planning and Tourism. This
comes a few days after minority leader Linda Witte resigned her post to
focus full-time on her position as mayor of Olean (though other mayors
have served in both positions at once)... hmm... 12/7 For the complete Fullervision
Archives, check this page.